Yeah, that’s really all I gotta say in this news post. I could write a long winded prediction post but…it’s been done. Have fun at the convention hall this week Brian, watch out for wild and/or rabid journalists on the loose. I’ll be sorting the avalanche of game news arriving over the coming days into news posts here.

And to everyone else out there stung by the E3 bug, try not to let the hype swallow you whole. – The Ben

Oh dear oh dear, when a few plucky members on NeoGaf found that the June issue of Qore could already be accessed, they didn’t realize that the issue would feature what was supposed to be one of Sony’s announcements at their press-conference next week. That announcement being of course the PSP GO!.

By now the Qore Issue is probably down but luckily the internet keeps a record of everything and there’s already a Youtube Video of the Qore Interview. Among the interesting facts given in the interview is that there’s going to be new Jak and Daxter and Metal Gear entries for the system, along with the long awaited Gran Turismo Mobile and some footage of the Portable version of Little Big Planet.

The PSP Go! is intended to work much like the GBA SP did with the GBA so many years back. Although the GBA SP all but replaced the GBA in the mindset of both the consumers and developers, there weren’t any SP only games that you couldn’t also play on your GBA. That’s probably one of the reasons Nintendo didn’t add extra Y and X buttons the SP, one of the major complaints surrounding the GBA line and it’s SNES ports.

That’s also why the PSP Go! doesn’t have a second analog nub. Sony wants their two handhelds to sell well together and won’t give the developers an incentive to make their games Go! only.

The most interesting thing about the PSP Go! announcement though, is that it’s almost confirmed that PS3 Slim rumor by showing off the packaging of the Go! in the leaked pictures. The style of the packaging for the PSP Go! is parallel to the leaked packaging pics of the PS3 Slim. The Go! box has a Blue style while the previously leaked Slim box had a Red style.

Leaks are a way of life, and the E3 dam is just getting started to break. – The Ben

By Brian Perry

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Sword of the Stars[/blippr] Ultimate Edition $20.00
[blippr]Europa Universalis Rome[/blippr] Gold Edition $9.99
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Lightweight Ninja[/blippr] $0.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3[/blippr] Black Edition $9.99
Or
The Unreal Deal Pack $19.99 Including
[blippr]Unreal[/blippr] Gold
[blippr]Unreal 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Unreal Tournament[/blippr]
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 2004[/blippr] Editor’s Choice Edition
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3[/blippr] Black Edition

Good Old Games –
Duke Nukem Promo $8.98
Including:
[blippr]Duke Nukem 3d Atomic Edition[/blippr]
[blippr]Duke Nukem The Manhatten Project[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
X-Com Complete Bundle $7.50
Including:
[blippr]X-Com: Enforcer[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Interceptor[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Apocalypse[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Terror From the Deep[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: UFO Defense[/blippr]

XBLA
[blippr]Bionic Commando: Rearmed[/blippr] 0400 msp

What a difference a year makes. This time last year E3 was still months away and everyone was hardly looking forward to it, remembering their impressions of 2007. All it took was for the people behind the show to go, “Yeah you’re right we fucked up” and promise that the show would return a good size larger (but not SUPER SIZED) in ’09. With the press conferences to E3 just a few days away and the giant building-sized banners already being put up, you can’t browse a gaming-related news site and not see an “OH MAH GAWD E3 IS COMING BACK BAYBEE!”

The Top Ten “Games we wanna see at E3 YEAH E3 FUCK YEAH WOOOOOO!” Lists have returned in full force. A good number of entries on that list haven’t even been announced yet and there’s a good chance some of them might not even be announced at the show. Everyone’s so hyped on seeing a new Zelda unveiled that if one isn’t shown off then it’ll be Nintendo’s fault for not telling them before hand that there won’t be a new Zelda announcement. And it’s Square’s fault of course for attendees not getting to spend as much time as they want with the new Final Fantasy XIII demo.

One need look no further for what appears to be the source of this influx of hype then the Game Critics Awards. The ironic thing about the awards is that the critics don’t even have to play the games at the show, they get their own “Game Critics Awards Judges Day” before hand a few weeks before the show when many of the big companies invite them to play their games and take ‘em into consideration for the coveted awards. Of course if you didn’t have a “Game Critics Awards Judges Day” for your game then you’ve just gotta hope they honor you with their presence at your booth.

Looking back at the winners of the Game Critics Awards from years past, there seem to be two categories of winners. One category is made up of the winners who not only perform well at E3, but end up doing well on release as well, so much so that when people recall the product, it’s about the product itself, not the hype from E3. These include Half-Life (1 and 2), the Wii, Rock Band, Halo 2, products that had substance to back up the hype (even if the substance wasn’t quite to your tastes, as was the case with the Wii and it’s evergreen titles to a number of gamers)

Then there are the other winners. The ones who seemingly had the most potential and promise than when they were finally released. These are comprised of Black and White, Doom 3, the PSP, and Ssssssspore. I want to talk about Spore for a minute as it almost seemed to be a game designed to win E3 awards. The gaming judges had their minds made up long before that E3 in 2005, back at GDC when Spore promised so much. It didn’t matter if they got to play the game, they just needed to see Will Wright do his stuff and they were sold. And I admit, Spore more than any other game that E3 probably deserved the Best of Show award. It brought the gaming community together with promises of the game not only delivering the gaming industry’s “Citizen Kane” but “…its Torah, its “Origin of Species” and its “2001: A Space Odyssey” all rolled into one.” as N’Gai proclaimed so long ago.

For a lot of the gaming press, this was going to be the one. The game that would not only be known as “THE GAME” to everyone in the world, gamers and non-gamers alike, but the one that would actually be fun to them to play as a game. The “Hardcore Gaming Press” didn’t catch onto The Sims as much as mainstream media did because it wasn’t much of a game to them. There were no grandiose stories with real-time cut scenes in both first person and third. They couldn’t see any sort of saga in the game and moments they would be able to recall at parties among friends years from then with a tear in their eye. Even though many a Sims player could probably come up with at least one moment that occurred in the game that stuck with them, it wasn’t one the GAMING JUDGES could put on their “TOP TEN MOMENTS IN GAMES THAT MADE US CRY. ;______;” lists, unless it was for hilarity purposes.

But Spore, Spore would different. It would be the one. The one that would make the stories and events on the fly. The one that would be accessible and complex and adjustable to likings of every gamer. It would be Citizen Kane AND the Torah. It would be the Godfather AND the Ten Commandments. They built the game up to be something it inevitably couldn’t. It could still be fun, still be awesome, but it couldn’t be that game. The one they could not only show their friends and family and say “SEE, SEE THIS IS AWESOME!” and Grandma would be like “OH SHIIIIT IT IS AWESOME HOLY SHIT!” and everyone would enjoy the awesome.

But, journalists, gamers, GAME CRITICS AWARD JUDGES, that’s already happened. It’s not one game that’s going to do it. It’s been happening for decades. Just because everybody can’t agree on one single game that both hardcore and non-gamers champion doesn’t mean you can’t just say “Video Games can be that connecting bridge between people of different backgrounds, creeds, and lifestyles.” And I’m sure that at this E3, they’ll be games that do that. – The Ben

Everyone knows the story of Ken Kutaragi, the Sony visionary who known as a maverick even to those inside his own company. His actions brought Sony to the top of the world in global sales yet brought them into the red when profits were concerned. The development of the PS3 would prove to be the final straw for the suits that control all the dealings behind the scenes. When it came time to pick a new head and Lord of all things Sony, they decided to go with a Welshman than Kutaragi, who at the time was riding high off the success of the PS2 and the hype of the upcoming PSP and PS3. All the articles and fluff pieces were pegging him as the man who would bring Sony even further to technological domination, but Kutaragi’s costly ventures made him the bad guy around town.

So what the heck does this have to do with a Neon Genesis Evangelion application for the PS3 wherein a digital Misato reads you real life news in a digitized voice? Well according to Kotaku that app in question is being developed by Cellius, a joint venture by Sony and Namco-Bandai with the sole intent of bringing Sony back to it’s glory days with Ken Kutaragi as the CEO himself. It seems Sony found the best possible solution to the Kutaragi problem in their eyes, rather than force him away from the company entirely they found a nice little company of his own to oversee where he can toil away on things that wouldn’t be the norm for another five to ten years.

This app seems to draw upon the same sense of zeitgeist that surrounds Kutaragi’s dreams. Ones of having your Playstation not only play games, movies, and the like. In addition Kutaragi’s Ideal Playstation would control everything you interact with. Everything in your living room, everything in your bed room, everything in your pants… Kutaragi was able to get Sony to see the threat of Microsoft attempting the living room takeover, but surprisingly enough wasn’t able to get them to counter Apple ushering in the new era in portable music. The PSP as advanced as it was at the time of it’s release was already too late in stopping Apple from becoming the Sony of the late 80′s.

Is this PS3 App only the beginning of more “Jack into the Matrix” style pipe-dreams of Kutaragi to finally see the light of day and commercial release? Will Crazy Ken have the last laugh after all? – The Ben

This week Brian, Kyle, Stephen, and Kevin again discuss Duke Nukem Forever, which absolutely refuses to be left out of the weekly news. They then talk about Fallout 3′s announced goodies and the merits of advertising in-game. Then it’s on to a discussion of the new content delivery system implemented by Valve in the new Team Fortress 2 class packs.

This week, Backwards Compatible Volume 4 concludes and Kyle and Stephen close off Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance. The new contenders for Volume 5 are announced, but if you still want to talk about Mechwarrior 4, don’t hesitate to email us at (podcast) at (lifeinsidethebox.com) or post your thoughts on the Backwards Compatible 4 thread on Forumopolis.

Life Inside the Box - 043 - It's sad we call this a short one. [ 1:06:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yes, that’s the real news concerning this piece, not what Guinness is actually trying to pass off as news. See according to 1UP (But don’t worry if you don’t read 1UP often the PR’s been sent to every gaming news outlet on the planet) the Guinness Book of World Records awarded Codemaster’s new racer Fuel the “Biggest Console Game of All Time.” Clocking in at a reported 5,560 square miles of accessible in-game terrain, the game is already being awarded an world record right as the title is close to release.

I’m sure at first the world record was “Biggest Game of All Time” when suddenly a PC Gaming Ninja immediately broke into their offices and relayed to them all of the PC games that have easily beaten that record. So they just added in “Console” and that was that.

OR WAS IT?

Because honestly are you really telling me that in the almost thirty years console gaming as we’ve known it has never produced a game that large? How did the measure the in-game distance compared to other games? Hell let’s take Wind Waker, how big was that damn Great Sea? There’s 49 ‘cells’ that make up the Great Sea in Wind Waker that you sail too. If there’s sixty-five unique islands and we use Toon Link as a unit of measurement and every five Toon Link’s is one King of Red Lions….shit, can we use cubits here? And we haven’t even started to take Hammerfall’s generated world but oh that’s on the PC so it doesn’t count.

Anyway the point is is that everything in games is subjective when talking about measurement and this is just another one of the PR stunts that Guinness does to hype up their Gamer Edition Guinness Records Book.

To end this, I’ll just quickly post one of my personal favorite Guinness Gamer Edition PR Events. A while back they hosted an event in which the largest number of video game-related cosplayers would gather together. The record was the…well it was the largest gathering of video game-related cosplayers. You can see video footage of the results here in which they boastfully claim that “There’s probably over 80 people here dressed up as video game characters alone!” to the world.

Oh wow there have been more video game character cosplayers gathered together in an anime convention hall bathroom. But the real ironic thing about this record is how many of the cosplayers there aren’t even cosplayers, they’re corporate mascots showing up for a PR event! Because Boogie became such a big hit that some hardcore fan of the game just had to make it out there to the event to show off his painstakingly recreated Boogie Costume. Then you have the Crash and Spyro suits there as well…wait is that the same Crash outfit that’s been worn for the past nine years? I’m not saying it’s the first one, the one where Crash called Mario out. The one they’ve been using ever since Crash stopped becoming a mainstream game mascot. That one.

And the best thing about it, the best thing? Mario’s not even there. I guess whichever branch had the Mario Suit that day didn’t care about the potential exposure the PR WORLD RECORD EVENT would bring. And they didn’t need to, there were a SHIT-TON of Mario there. That’s the plural for Mario right? Just, Mario? Marios, Marii? Anyway, these events are such desperate grabs for attention that when the guy who’s appeared in more games than God did in the Bible doesn’t bother to make an official appearance that you’re not doing this to show off how far man has come and his achievements….through….cosplay….

– The Ben.

By The Ben

Well it’s been a quiet week in Lake Hylia recently it’s been this way for the past few months. You can tell when there hasn’t been a new release in the Zelda series in a long while when the fan mutter surrounding the series becomes as quiet as you can imagine. And it’s ironic that things are quiet during this season of mum words as you’d think the period where the fans would be most quiet would be right after the release of a new Zelda game. But of course there’s always a vocal minority that just has to get their opinion out concerning the new game as soon as the disk is popped into the system.

Contrast that to the articles and impressions of the game around four or five years after it’s initial release, almost all the time they’re articles about how the gaming community may have underrated the game. Yes underrated. The Zelda series is one of the few video game series that seems to be in a constant cycle between whether or not the titles are overrated or underrated. A few weeks, few months and then a year or so after the release of a title you get the obligatory “______ Overrated?” articles and many of the articles bring up good points about the game’s design and how the flaws were overlooked at the time of release. However the main point of these articles stems from the fact that there was too much hype surrounding the game, and then particular people were let down.

The opposite on the other hand concerns the other Zelda titles. No not the CDi ones the ones that weren’t what longtime fans of the series would call traditional entries. These ones are noted by detractors as being too much of a departure while supporters of the titles herald them for “turning everything you know about Zelda on the head”. A few years after these entries are released they finally get mentioned as being “unjustly looked down upon at the time” for being too different from tradition. This happened first of course with Zelda II.

Without the internet at the time it wasn’t as easy to find these admissions of love for the black sheep of the family and the common assumption by the early to mid-nineties was that Zelda II was for all purposes the worst of the Zelda titles. Every magazine you’d find Zelda 1 and Link to the Past topping the Favorites Lists and any mention of Zelda II wasn’t about the experience the writer had with the game but a small blurb simply acknowledging the fact that it was “the black sheep” of the series.

You see this happen with almost every entry in the series but more often than not it happens with the off-season entries. Zelda II, Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker are most common examples of articles consisting of sympathetic affection towards the outcast titles. This was most noticeable to me during the Virtual Console releases of both Ocarina of Time and more recently, Majora’s mask. With Ocarina of Time the general consensus seemed to be that while it was great that the Virtual Console was getting more games, most wouldn’t buy it because they’ve already played it multiple times before, and only really recommended buying it on the VC for those that never experienced it before. Not only that, but accusations of “It hasn’t aged that well graphically” and the like were thrown around, as if they were trying to say “Eh, you don’t really have to get it” but almost felt like they were unjustly mistreating the game by doing that.

With the release of Majora’s Mask on the US Virtual Console in the last week the sentiment seems to have been one of a vastly different attitude. Cries of “If you’re going to download one game on the Virtual Console this year, make it this one.” are being heard and fellow gaming journalists are coaxing their peers who were too cool for Zelda by 2000 into giving the game another go.

I used to think that the Legend of Zelda series was one that was built on a foundation of agreement among fans. That the mindset of every single one was in compliance with the rest of the group. As the series got bigger and older fans got older while new younger fans were brought in, I noticed my original assumption couldn’t have been further off the mark. Every Zelda fan has one game in particular it seems that they’ll point to and go, “There. That one. That was the best one.” But they won’t always agree and they’ll fight and try and use irrefutable evidence that the other person’s opinion is wrong. “That game’s so overrated no THAT one’s so overrated how can you be so stupid” the process never seems to end and continues with each new release. It’s because of this controversy in the end though that I think the Zelda series is better off because of it. Each title has at least one super fan who will defend it’s importance through and through, from the NES to the portable entries. Hell, in the future some kid who got a Wii for Christmas as a child and a copy of “Link’s Crossbow Training” because his mom saw that came with an extra piece of plastic will probably defend that entry as their favorite as well.

There’s no one universal hatred for any specific title in the series and yes, after years of searching without any luck, there’s at least one person who fancies the CDi adventures as well.

By Kyle Krueger

I’ve been a tower defense buff for many years. Before [blippr]Defense Grid: The Awakening[/blippr], tower defense games were all free, and restricted to being either online flash games or user-created maps for popular RTS games such as Warcraft III. When I noticed Defense Grid on Steam, I was instantly skeptical. Any commercial tower defense grid game would either be a shameless money grab with no inspiration, or ridiculously unintelligent. While it is by no means perfect, this game is not the horrid mess I was expecting.

For the uninitiated, a tower defense grid places the player overlooking an empty map in which they can create a network of “towers,” or buildings that automatically fire on nearby enemies. Once the player has built their towers, wave after wave of enemy monsters attempt to make their way through the tower maze to reach some objective, usually an exit portal or a critical structure. In Defense Grid, you command a series of towers meant to protect a collection of power cores from being stolen by the enemy alien hordes. If an enemy grabs a core, he then makes for the exit, but he can still be killed while he’s carrying the core, and the core slowly drifts back to its storage location.

The game comes with a fairly decent number of towers to choose from, ranging from the standard machine gun and high-caliber cannon towers to the more exotic time-slowing temporal tower and the explosive concussion tower. There are ten types total to choose from, leaving a little to be desired; the best tower defense games have many more options to choose from. However, each tower fills a specific role and has its own strengths and weaknesses, and none really feel unbalanced. The low number of towers means the player quickly falls into a specific pattern and strategy that allows little variation, and as the game goes on, it slowly runs out of steam. The game is also very easy to complete fully, especially for a seasoned tower defense veteran like myself.

Graphically, the game is quite attractive – each tower is well-designed with multiple moving parts and great lighting effects. There are beautiful backdrops to each level and the scenery is all fairly good looking for a tower defense. The sound is a bit lacking, however. Explosions and gunshots overpower almost everything and make the weak music hard to hear. A narrator walks you through what little story there is when he’s not giving vague descriptions of new towers or offering a depressing look into the history of the world, which is flat, bland, and impossible to get in to. The narrative adds nothing to the game.

The gameplay itself, however, is solid, even with the low number of towers. The towers all have their uses and each map is different, forcing the player to develop a new maze on the fly. It’s obvious the developers had some experience with tower defense games because they included a welcome pair of features. The first is a fast forward button that allows you to bypass the duller times, and the second is an option that lets you fall back to the most recent save, which is helpful, as the game autosaves very regularly. The types of enemies keep you on your toes and you have to be able to adapt quickly or die trying. There are a good number of levels and the challenge and casual modes let you play around even after beating the game.

I picked Defense Grid up on a weekend deal for five dollars, which it was well worth, but it isn’t worth the MSRP 19.99. Hold off until it goes on sale again if you can, but definitely give it a look, especially if you enjoy a good tower defense.

7/10

Joystiq reports that in a recent Game Daily Interview with ESA CEO Michael Gallagher that Gallagher stresses that while this year’s E3 will indeed ‘more reflective of the energy, excitement and creativity of our industry’ that it won’t necessarily be the giant hype fest it was in the first half of this decade. So while we’ll still be seeing a higher level of excitement according to the CEO, those giant excess convention wall wide High-Definition screens might not be accompanying the exhibitors this time around.

Speaking of not making to the show, thanks to the Swine Flu outbreak, the Japanese branches of Capcom, Square-Enix and Koei are going to be staying home according to Kombo. While the companies themselves will still be represented at the show via their US branch counterparts, the people at the companies who make the big decisions will be sitting this one out for health reasons.

Satoru Iwata hasn’t mentioned anything about missing the expo on his twitter, so hopefully he’s still on for next month. – The Ben

Well this was a surprise to wake up to, according to GamerBytes the German USK rating board has revealed that Secret of Monkey Island is making it’s way to the 360 in some form, most likely on the XBLA.

But what’s most interesting of course is the “Special Edition” moniker attached to the title. Will it simply get a new coat of HD paint like so many XBLA Ports have gotten, or will it be something more grandiose, an entire reworking of the game with voice acting and the like?

To top this off, it seems like the XBLA now has representatives from every PC gaming genre from the 90′s. You have Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Wolfenstein on the way representing the FPS stable. Now we’ll have on the defining PC Adventure games on the Arcade as well. What 90′s PC gaming genres can the XBLA look towards representing next? – The Ben

Gamasutra reports in a little investigation article today that Killzone 2, selling 58,000 copies in April, has now sold a lifetime U.S. bar of 677,000 sales according to the NPD.

It’s not all bad news for Killzone 2, the game has become a pretty sizable hit in European territories and had sold a million worldwide by the end of March according to Sony. But it’s still short of the lofty dreams Sony had for it back in 2005 when every single press outlet was citing Killzone 2 as the game that defined Next-Generation, much like they did back in 2000 when the first MGS2 trailer was shown to the world and became the Killzone 2 of it’s era. It became the top talking point in favor of the PS2′s potential against other systems.

Of course MGS2 managed to sell over seven million copies worldwide since it’s release. Killzone 2 has a bit of a journey ahead of itself if it wants to reach that goal. – The Ben

A fresh Monday news post comes along with Game Induztry.biz reporting that Bethesda is working on a game for the Wii’s Mature Market. You know, the very, VERY vocal minority who hypes up mature Wii game after mature Wii game and most of the time don’t even give the game the sales they say it deserves? Yeah that Mature Market.

Sean Brennan, managing director for Bethesda in Europe is quoted as saying that “We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we’ve got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it’s a format we’re really looking at with the right approach.”

He goes on to say, “I’ve got consoles at home but I wouldn’t sit and play an 18-rated game with my family on the Wii. Is there space in the Wii market for that? I think there is, but again, it’s all about finding out how big that is. Is it 5 per cent? If it’s five per cent of the market and you can own that space it’s worth doing because you can achieve volume. If you can’t own it at five per cent, it’s not worth doing, quite frankly.”

So, interestingly it sounds like they’re making a game for themselves that they want to play instead of just making the game for the potential of money. As E3 draws closer game announcements for all the systems will be coming at us at the usual pace we used to get them back when E3 was in it’s prime. It’s an exciting feeling to be honest. I only hope E3 delivers on this promise of the return of it’s glory days and game announcements coming out of the woodworks. – The Ben

This week, Brian, Kyle, Stephen, Raymond, and Kevin knock their heads together to analyze the always unpredictable NPD numbers for April. Also included is a followup discussion of DRM and how it pertains to 2D Boy, Stardock, and PC gaming in general. The group then makes a plethora of E3 2009 predictions that will undoubtedly be proven false.

Backwards Compatible this week covered the middle chunk of Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance and will conclude next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to listen to this week’s show and play through the end of the game for the May 25 show. As always, send in your questions/comments on the game to (podcast) at (lifeinsidethebox.com) or post them on Forumopolis.

Life Inside the Box - 042 - Don't Panic [ 1:40:55 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Brian Perry

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Restaurant Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Call of Duty: World At War[/blippr] $24.99 50% off

Good Old Games –
[blippr]Heroes of Might and Magic[/blippr] $5.99
25% off Select Adventure Games
Including:
[blippr]In Cold Blood[/blippr] $5.99
[blippr]The Feeble Files[/blippr] $5.99
[blippr]Waxworks[/blippr] $5.99
[blippr]Runaway: A Road Adventure[/blippr] $9.99

Gamers Gate
[blippr]Elven Legacy[/blippr] $14.99 50% off
[blippr]Supreme Commander[/blippr] $14.99 50% off

Direct2Drive
[blippr]Elven Legacy[/blippr] $14.99 50% off
[blippr]Sacred 2[/blippr] $29.95 40% off
Hacker Evolution: Untold $12.95 50% off

XBLA
XBLA Arcade Game: [blippr]Brain Challange[/blippr] 400 msp (Gold Members Only)

PlayStation Network
PlayStation Network Game: [blippr]Bionic Commando: Rearmed[/blippr] $4.99 (PlayStation 3)
PlayStation Network Game: [blippr]Ragdoll Kung Fu[/blippr] FREE (PlayStation 3)

The saga of Duke continues according to this Bloomberg blurb as Take-Two is now suing Apogee (even if 3D Realms is closed the legal name of the company is still Apogee. The 3D Realms name was created by Apogee in order to focus on 3D Gaming) over…well the fact that DNF took for freakin’ ever when it was still in development.

Take-Two is being quoted in the article saying that, “Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever. Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward competing development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

Looks like all those “When it’s done” message board posts aren’t going to satisfy Take-Two now that it’s time to pay up. – The Ben

The NPD has just released it’s numbers for April and there’s dips all around console wise.

PlayStation 2 172K
PlayStation 3 127K
PSP 116K
Xbox 360 175K
Wii 340K
Nintendo DS 1.04M

FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 471K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 433K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 210K
PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 170K
THE GODFATHER II ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 155K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA 360 122K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 119K
MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 112K
GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD (CORP) 360 110K
THE GODFATHER II ELECTRONIC ARTS PS3 91K

No real surprises given everything that’s going on. The economy is still weak, but people still wanna game.

- The Ben

Update: A little leak on this blog shows us the Top 20 last month for all platforms. Interesting things from a quick glance are Halo 3 outselling Halo Wars thanks to the map pack, the DS and PSP lists both made up of evergreen titles. Well, the DS has long selling titles, the PSP just has whatever Gamestop put on sale that month plus the Final Fantasy games and the two GTA Stories. And another factoid I’ve noted before, Link’s Crossbow Training is selling well for a game that came out almost two years ago and was comprised entirely of the shooting segments lifted from Twilight Princess. I don’t even want to see if it’s true but there’s a chance it could actually catch up to the sales of Twilight Princess if it keeps up selling at this rate.

I mean hell, why not release a fishing rod attachment and sell “Link’s Fishing Training” with both the Twilight and Ocarina versions of Zelda Fishing Fun?

On Factor 5′s own site today, the company behind the Rogue Squadron games and….Lair….well they announced officially that their San Rafael-based studio will be shutting down, with the unrelated cousin company Factor 5 GmbH in Germany remaining open.

The main reason given for the closure of the studio lies mainly with the bankruptcy of Brash Entertainment according to the site. That coupled with the current economic situation brought a bad wind into the small company who once believed so hard in the HD Generation, only to have their first project of the seventh console generation plagued by ghosts.

A more in depth look on the troubled journey Factor 5 took from the technical underdogs of the N64 and GCN to their final stand on the PS3 can be found on this blog. The one point you can spot Factor 5 jumping into their final blaze of glory can be seen when Julian Eggebrecht of Factor 5 is constantly pushing then BFF Nintendo into helping them get started on the next-gen train of gaming, and shocked when Nintendo decides to go a completely different route. Factor 5 could only see one future, a Future in High-Def. Unfortunately for Factor 5, history had other plans for the gaming industry. -The Ben

By Brian Perry

What do you get when you put an endless stream of jets, private planes, and helicopters all trying to land at the same airport? If you’re a member of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, it’s frequentflyer miles at the local psych ward. If you’re an Iphone owner on the other hand you’ve got bundles of fun.

Firemint studios Iphone/Ipod Touch app Flight Control puts your fingers in control of the lives of hundreds of digital denizens as you map flight paths for an increasing stream of flight craft in for safe landings. using your fingers you grab an aircraft and chart it’s flight path into one of the three color coded landing zones, instructing them to duck and weave to avoid the other paths you’ve assigned their colleagues. Each aircraft has a designated landing zone and a unique speed, leading to some rewarding challenges.

Flight control shows excellent design through and through. For example, the start of the program offers you the opportunity to disable the game sounds so as not to turn off any music you may be playing, and in an additional stroke of design genius each aircraft is assigned a color code that corresponds with the runway you must land them on that will fade when you have assigned it an approach vector making quick and easy identification of stray craft just a glance at the screen.

One of the few flaws I’ve experienced so far is the classic touch dilemma. My fat fingers usually end up getting in the way of viewspace, sending hundreds of digital denizens to a fiery death. As well there is only a small amount of maps, severely limiting the amount of replay value. Thankfully, Firemint has committed to adding future airports, via a title update in the future.

For a quick mindless puzzle game, Flight Control definitely fits the bill. You can find it on the Itunes App store.

8/10

Developer Atari (by name only) announced to Joystiq that they’ve decided to skip this year’s E3 revival tent extravaganza. The company was quoted as saying that it was a “proactive decision to attend but not exhibit at this year’s E3 event.”

While this shouldn’t worry everyone who wants to see the old E3 back, it is telling how one of the biggest companies in the “Spend all our budget on everything that’s not game development” department (how much do you think that giant convention wall sized entrance banner cost them back in 2004?) is cutting back on seemingly frivolous costs.

I wonder if EA’s going to bring back their 360 degree video screen next month at the expo? – The Ben